The northwest part of Weyburn is home to the majority of the cities elm tree growth. The City of Weyburn is always watchful for cases of Dutch elm disease. Although Weyburn hasn't seen Dutch elm disease since 2014, two cases have recently popped up.

"It was a resident that reported a concern, we went out, we tested the tree and yes it came back positive for Dutch elm disease," says Claude Morin, Superintendent of Public Works and Parks for the City of Weyburn. "We have to send samples to a lab, you can't visually determine the presence of the disease."

The tree symptoms of Dutch elm disease are similar to what we generally see from trees during fall. Yellowing and wilting of leaves is the main sign, however, with Dutch elm disease, it may be localized to individual branches.

"While we were removing that tree we noticed a neighboring tree not too far away that was also symptomatic," says Morin. "We sampled it and sent samples away and it came back positve that second instance of the disease, we are currently working with the home owner to have that tree removed."

The reason why there are such strict guidelines when it comes to Dutch elm disease is because the fungus will kill the tree, making removal of the tree the best way to fight it from spreading.

"Once a tree is verified to have Dutch elm disease it's fatal there's nothing that can be done to halt the spread of the disease in the tree," says Morin. "Once the tree dies it provides breading habitat for the beetle that carries the Dutch elm disease fungus."

Weyburn has a geographical advantage as dutch elm disease generally follows rivers, valleys and natural growing batches of elm trees.

The program the city has in place to keep the elm trees clean of dead branches has helped immensely with keeping Dutch elm disease under control. The City of Weyburn reminds people to contact them if you have concerns about any elm trees.